Gate Decentralized Finance Daily ( October 23 ): DEX project Bunni announces closure; Aave initiates long-term buyback plan.

On October 23, the crypto assets market experienced a slight rebound, with BTC surpassing $109,000 and ETH nearing $3,900. The total DeFi TVL across the network returned to above $150 billion, reaching $150.215 billion, a slight decrease of 0.11% over 24 hours. The DEX volume was approximately $18.348 billion, down 29.84% week-on-week, indicating a weakening willingness for short-term capital trading. Uniswap continued to lead with a trading volume of $5.448 billion and protocol fees of $8.42 million; at the same time, events such as Bunni's announcement of closure and Aave's initiation of a long-term repurchase plan became the market focus, showing a clear differentiation pattern in the industry amid turbulent market conditions.

DeFi Market Overview

(Source: DeFiLlama)

Total DeFi TVL across the network: Today (October 23), the crypto market has seen a slight rebound, with BTC breaking through $109,000 and ETH approaching $3,900; the total DeFi TVL across the network has returned above $150 billion, currently at $150.215 billion, down 0.11% in the last 24 hours.

DEX 24-hour volume: approximately 18.348 billion USD, a week-on-week decrease of 29.84%; the top three are: Uniswap (5.448 billion USD), PancakeSwap (2.861 billion USD), HumidiFi (1.327 billion USD).

Popular Protocols and On-Chain Performance

Based on TVL, the data for the top ten DeFi protocols is as follows:

(Source: DeFiLlama)

The top-performing protocol data are as follows:

Aave: TVL approximately 37.353 billion USD, down 7.47% in the past week;

Lido: TVL is approximately 32.945 billion USD, with a decline of 3.24% over the past week.

EigenLayer: TVL approximately 16.26 billion USD, down 3.97% over the past week;

Ethena: TVL approximately 11.018 billion USD, down 12.75% over the past week;

Spark: TVL approximately 10.122 billion USD, with a growth of 6.22% over the past week.

In addition, the top ten projects by protocol fees in the past 24 hours are as follows:

(Source: DeFiLlama)

Among them, Uniswap's protocol fees in the past 24 hours reached 8.42 million USD, ranking second after Tether (23.25 million USD); Hyperliquid's protocol fees in the past 24 hours reached 4.26 million USD, ranking fourth; Jupiter ranked fifth with 4.10 million USD.

Project News Review

1. The decentralized trading protocol Bunni has reported that it has recently encountered a vulnerability that has led to stagnation in growth. Restarting the protocol will require payment of approximately six to seven figures for auditing and monitoring costs, and the development and business cycle is too long, leading the team to decide to shut down. Users can still withdraw assets through the official website; subsequently, there are plans to allocate the remaining treasury assets to holders (BUNNI, LIT, veBUNNI) based on snapshots, with team members not participating. Specific details will be announced after the legal process is completed. The Bunni v2 contract has changed from BUSL to MIT open-source license and will continue to assist law enforcement in recovering stolen funds.

The analyst Eye, who previously revealed the identity of the “1011 flash crash whale,” posted on the X platform about the Bunni hacker. He stated that this hacker had attacked 14 protocols including Equilibria, BSX, DFX Finance, and Curve. In many cases, after launching attacks, he would drain all the liquidity from various protocols, leading to their collapse. This hacker acts recklessly and ruthlessly, disregarding that he is mocking the future of many people, including users' funds and the funds of various teams.

Eye pointed out that this attacker has extensive connections in the Crypto Assets industry and is linked to venture capital firms. She believes that she is untouchable due to her alibi. She also possesses thousands of online aliases, and now it is time for her to pay the price.

2. According to official news, Hyperliquid Strategies has submitted an S-1 filing, planning to raise up to $1 billion for general corporate purposes, including possibly purchasing HYPE coins.

3. Hyperliquid's upstream liquidity staking protocol Kinetiq has announced the launch of KNTQ, which is the governance token of the Kinetiq protocol and will airdrop 24% to kpoints holders.

4. The Ethereum scalability solution MegaETH developed by MegaLabs announced on platform X that it will launch a public sale on Sonar under Echo, with an initial fully diluted valuation (FDV) of 1 million USD and a valuation cap set at 999 million USD. Users can bid through English auctions, with the highest bid reaching up to 186,282 USD. If subscriptions exceed the amount, existing MegaETH community members will be given priority, as well as those investors who demonstrate long-term consistency through social activities, on-chain behavior, and locking preferences. The bi-peak distribution process ensures wide distribution of tokens while prioritizing key contributors. Core supporters of MegaETH will receive priority allocation, with at least 5,000 participants receiving a base allocation with an initial price of 2,650 USD. 5% of the total MEGA token supply will be sold on October 27. The registration process for participation eligibility is now open.

5. The Aave community has proposed to institutionalize the long-term buyback program for AAVE, funded by protocol revenues. The plan will establish an annual budget of 50 million USD, using flexible execution parameters to allow the Aave DAO to strategically deploy funds to continuously buy back and accumulate AAVE tokens, thereby indefinitely extending the existing buyback program.

Plan Structure: Annual Budget: 50,000,000 USD; Responsible Parties: Tokenlogic and Aave Finance Committee (AFC); Weekly Execution Range: Purchase AAVE worth USD 250,000 to 1,750,000 weekly.

AFC will have the right to adjust the weekly repurchase amount within a 75% floating range, based on factors including: market conditions and liquidity, token price volatility, strategic timing considerations, and the availability of protocol revenue.

6. At the 2025 Shanghai Blockchain International Week and the 11th Global Blockchain Summit, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin stated in his speech that over the past decade, blockchain and encryption technologies have made significant progress, moving from early exploration to a new stage of “scalable, developer-friendly, and low-cost.” He pointed out that zero-knowledge proofs (ZK) and fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) are rapidly developing, making real-time verification of Ethereum L1 blocks a reality, and blockchain is becoming more efficient, more decentralized, and more privacy-preserving.

Vitalik emphasized that cryptography is moving from “theory” to “widespread usability”. In the next five to ten years, the costs of technologies like ZK, FHE, and L2 will approach zero, integrating into all applications like signatures and encryption. He also introduced a new security concept of “not your silicon, not your private key,” calling for greater attention to hardware trustworthiness and privacy protection. He encourages developers to actively participate in the construction of the ZK and blockchain ecosystem, from entrepreneurship, underlying research and development to application practice, to jointly promote the formation of the next generation of decentralized infrastructure.

7. According to SolanaFloor, the Jito blacklist committee has additionally banned 15 validators from receiving JitoSOL staking assets. Previously, according to the latest report by @0xGhostLogs, there are 23 major validators staking through Marinade and Jito (6 of whom also received staking support from the Solana Foundation), and over 6% of their block production rights (leader slots) involved the “wide sandwiches” issue.

8. According to Fortune magazine, on Wednesday, Senate Democrats wrote to Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, requesting more details about his personal crypto assets investment situation. The letter was led by Senator Adam Schiff and co-signed by eight other senators, asking Witkoff to explain why his latest ethical disclosure document shows that he still holds shares in crypto assets and other crypto business entities associated with Trump. The senators stated that the unliquidated assets raise questions about his compliance with federal ethical laws and whether he can prioritize the interests of the American people over his personal financial interests.

Steve Witkoff and World Liberty Financial stated in May that Witkoff is “fully divesting” his stake in the project. However, the latest ethical disclosure document on August 13 shows that he has divested his $120 million stake in the real estate company, but has not yet sold his Crypto Assets. Senate Democrats claim that Witkoff's ongoing business interests in the Crypto Assets sector could pose a conflict of interest, as his role as the highest diplomat in the Middle East reportedly overlaps with World Liberty Financial's business ties with the UAE. They are asking Witkoff to respond by October 31.

9. The liquidity leaderboard for Turtle Season 2 is now live. In Season 1, users earned rewards by providing liquidity, participating in activities, and contributing on-chain and off-chain channels. Season 2 will focus on the leaderboard, tracking the activities of KaitoAI and Cookie.fun in real time, recording deposit data, even though the leaderboard has not been made public yet.

Users can stake in advance and receive allocations after completing a 12-week vesting period, as well as participate in activities to boost leaderboard scores. Deposits are supported for multiple protocols including Katana, Linea, and AVAX. More rewards will be offered in the second season, including partner incentives in addition to TURTLE, with specific rules to be announced after the Token Generation Event (TGE).

Overview of Major Leading DeFi Projects

Solana DEX 24-hour volume ranks first, approximately 4.753 billion USD, with the top three projects being:

HumidiFi (1.327 billion USD), Meteora (957.91 million USD), Raydium (714.05 million USD);

Ethereum DEX ranks second in 24-hour trading volume, approximately 4.528 billion USD, with the top three projects being:

Uniswap ($3.102 billion), Fluid ($561.81 million), Curve Finance ($273.66 million);

BNB Chain DEX ranks third in 24-hour trading volume, approximately 3.214 billion USD, with the top three projects being:

PancakeSwap ($2.273 billion), Uniswap ($807.86 million), four.meme ($116.23 million).

Gate DeFi sector token market data

According to the data from Gate's market page, the price performance of the top ten tokens in the DeFi sector is as follows:

(Source: Gate DeFi Market Data)

As of October 23, the cryptocurrency market is showing signs of recovery, with tokens in the DeFi sector mostly rising and few falling. Specifically:

UNI is currently reported at 6.2 USD, with a 24-hour increase of 0.68%;

AAVE is currently reported at 223 USD, with a 24-hour increase of 2.83%;

WLFI is currently reported at 0.127 USD, with a 24-hour increase of 2%;

MORPHO is currently reported at 1.88 USD, with a 24-hour increase of 3.7%;

INJ is currently priced at 8.41 USD, with a 24-hour increase of 1.99%;

MYX is currently reported at 2.72 USD, with a 24-hour decline of 2.11%;

CRV is currently at 0.5243 USD, with a 24-hour rebound of 0.28%;

SYRUP is currently reported at 0.3718 USD, with a 24-hour decline of 7.13%;

FF is currently reported at 0.1527 USD, with a 24-hour increase of 2.46%.

Market Trend Interpretation

TVL is steadily rising, liquidity appears slightly cautious The total DeFi TVL on the network has rebounded to over 150 billion USD. Although there is a daily drop of 0.11%, the increase in mainstream assets supports the overall market capitalization. Signs of capital returning are beginning to emerge, but on-chain liquidity remains concentrated in leading protocols. The TVL of the four major protocols Aave, Lido, EigenLayer, and Ethena has all shown varying degrees of decline, with only Spark achieving a weekly increase of 6.22%, reflecting a shift of funds towards high-yield and clearly incentivized projects.

DEX volume declines, Uniswap remains the dominant force The total DEX volume across the network is $18.348 billion, a decrease of nearly 30% compared to last week. However, Uniswap, PancakeSwap, and HumidiFi still hold the top positions. The Ethereum DEX volume stands at $4.528 billion, with Uniswap accounting for over 68%, indicating that top liquidity remains concentrated within the Ethereum ecosystem. On the Solana chain, HumidiFi and Meteora lead the way, with the latter achieving nearly $960 million in transactions over the past 24 hours, highlighting the continued activity in the Solana ecosystem.

Protocol revenue is centralized, on-chain activities maintain high frequency The protocol fee leaderboard shows that Tether, Uniswap, Hyperliquid, and Jupiter rank in the top five, with Uniswap's daily fee at 8.42 million USD, reflecting that trading depth and user stickiness remain at the forefront of the industry. Hyperliquid and Jupiter have performed outstandingly, indicating that the derivatives and cross-chain liquidity direction continues to attract active users. Overall, the market maintains a high frequency but low volatility state, lacking incremental funds in the short term.

Project Event Strengthens Structural Differentiation Bunni announces the closure in contrast to the long-term repurchase proposal from Aave— the former highlights the security and fragility of funding chains for small and medium protocols, while the latter reflects the sustainable business model of leading protocols. Vitalik's speech at the Shanghai summit further reinforced the long-term narratives of ZK, FHE, L2, etc., providing confidence support for subsequent technology and funding layouts.

Analyst's Perspective

1. Buyback Mechanism as Core Support for Long-term Value Analysts point out that Aave's institutional buyback plan will strengthen the value capture mechanism of the tokens. In the current environment of cautious capital, this type of real yield and token buyback model will gain more market favor. Protocols like Jito and Aave, which have stable income, may benefit first in the next round of DeFi recovery.

2. Security and cost remain the biggest risks for small and medium protocols The closure of Bunni serves as a reminder to the market that security vulnerabilities and operational costs pose ongoing pressure on small and medium projects. Analysts believe that future DeFi competition will focus more on compliance, audit quality, and sustainable business models, rather than simply high yields.

3. Solana Ecosystem Maintains High Activity Levels Solana's on-chain transaction activity continues to lead, with HumidiFi and Meteora becoming key drivers of volume growth. Analysts believe this reflects an increasing trust in high-performance chain ecosystems, and Solana is expected to maintain its popularity in the new round of capital rotation.

4. Technical Upgrades and Narrative Return to Fundamentals Vitalik's speech at the Shanghai Blockchain International Week reinforced Ethereum's long-term technical roadmap. Analysts pointed out that the maturity of directions such as ZK, FHE, and L2 will further reduce the costs of the Ethereum network, providing higher efficiency and security guarantees for DeFi protocols, pushing the industry into a new stage of “performance and privacy advancing hand in hand.”

5. Short-term outlook: Fluctuation bottoming out, funds focusing on the top Analysts generally believe that the DeFi market is currently in a low-volatility fluctuation period, with mainstream protocols and quality assets still attracting more existing funds. In the short term, TVL may remain within a narrow range around 150 billion USD, but in the medium to long term, the trend of capital allocation is concentrating on protocols that have real returns, governance buybacks, and ecological synergy capabilities.

Conclusion

Overall, on October 23, the DeFi market continued its structurally differentiated pattern. The rebound of mainstream assets boosted confidence, but on-chain liquidity and trading activity remained weak. Aave's buyback plan reinforced the long-term narrative, while Bunni's closure reminded us of the importance of safety and sustainable development. Technical upgrades, real yields, and ecological integration will become the core keywords in the next phase of competition in Decentralized Finance.